Roundtable seeks consensus on poultry standards

WA Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan will today bring together key poultry industry leaders and animal welfare groups to help guide the Western Australian Government’s position on proposed national animal welfare standards for poultry.

The roundtable follows the WA Government’s decision to dissent from draft Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Poultry, which make little improvement to the welfare standards of egg-laying and meat chickens.

Representatives from the Commercial Egg Producers’ Association WA, the WA Poultry Association, the WA Chicken Meat Council, the WA Broilers’ Association, RSPCA and Animal Australia have been invited to put forward their position on the draft standards, with a focus on conditions for egg-laying chickens.

The draft national standards are currently open for public consultation, and the roundtable will help to shape the WA Government’s formal submission to the draft standards.